Go Down the Rabbit Hole

[joshua 1 9]

"An allusion to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. To go "down the rabbit hole" is to enter a period of chaos or confusion." (Urban Dictionary)

Recently we had a Wild (Feral) cat move her litter of kittens into our back yard. The mother cat would find a mouse out by the shed and bring it to her kittens for them to play with. At first I thought I was just going to observe them and not interfere other than to give them a little food to keep them in good health. Then one day she brought them a dead baby bunny. What they do is eat the bunny and then they use the fur from the bunny to line the bed for the kittens to keep them warm. That was too much for me and now we have a new rule: NO DEAD ANIMALS. If they do not like my rule they can leave. If they want to live in my yard and have me feed them then they are going to have to act at least a little bit civilized.

Actually what was happening is one of the kittens is a little bit small. It is a very brave kitten and it has been going down the rabbit hole and chasing the bunnies out for the mother to take care of. They made quite a team. When we figured out what was going on then we put a brick down the rabbit hole to keep the cat out. The bunnies dug around the brick but the hole is still so small for the kitten to go down the rabbit hole now.

I do not know what evolutionary theory has to offer to make any sense out of a going down the rabbit hole. But one thing is for sure chaos and confusion is sure to follow. Somewhere along the way domestic animals and plants became domesticated but evolutionary theory really does not do a very good job of explaining just how this happened.

Sort of makes me wonder sometimes if evolutionary theory is not a trip down the rabbit hole with confusion sure to follow. Better to go by the Bible and creationism. This explains the fallen condition of creation and our need for redemption and restoration.

Isaiah 65:25 "25"The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent's food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain," says the LORD."

 

[[serious]]

So... what's the topic?

I get:
1. Strays move into your yard
2. Strays kill mice
3. Strays kill bunnies
4. You get bothered by the idea that cats don't share your views about teh relative worth of mice and bunnies.
5. ???
6. evolution is chaos

Personally, I'd much rather eat rabbit than mouse as well.

 

[PloverWing]

I do not know what evolutionary theory has to offer to make any sense out of a going down the rabbit hole. But one thing is for sure chaos and confusion is sure to follow. Somewhere along the way domestic animals and plants became domesticated but evolutionary theory really does not do a very good job of explaining just how this happened.

As I understand it, evolutionary theory would say this: The small felines have evolved to be excellent stealth hunters. Their set of stalking skills makes them well-adapted to hunting prey like rabbits and birds. (You can't outrun a rabbit or bird, but you can sneak up on it.) As wildcats began to interact with humans, humans contributed to the selection pressures, and a feline variety emerged that was still an excellent hunter but was also friendly to humans. Thus felis silvestris and felis catus diverged, though they are still interfertile.

Going down the rabbit hole? If the cats can use their skills of flexibility and cooperation to hunt rabbits as a team, then there's a meal at the end of it. I'd say the cats are extremely well-adapted to the environment of your back yard. They are likely to survive and pass on their genes to the next generation, which is what evolution predicts.

 

[joshua 1 9]

So... what's the topic?

I get:
1. Strays move into your yard
2. Strays kill mice
3. Strays kill bunnies
4. You get bothered by the idea that cats don't share your views about teh relative worth of mice and bunnies.
5. ???
6. evolution is chaos

Personally, I'd much rather eat rabbit than mouse as well.

The stray cat moved her kittens into my yard when they were around 5 weeks old. Back before she got pregnant she was begging food from me because she was just not able to catch enough food to keep her healthy. The squirrels, rabbits and birds do not seem to need help but the cats are not fully self sufficient. I am not sure about the possums and raccoons as to how much food they get from people. They do like to eat the food that people put out for the cats and they get pretty big eating that food.

There is an issue with a neighbor where they do not like stray cats and they do not want them eating the cute little bunnies. They think that all cats belong inside. So the cute little bunny should in their opinion not have to worry about the starving cat eating them.

I think the issue has to do with the evolutionary transition from hunter gather to food producer that took place around 6,000 years ago with Adam and Eve. The issue also has to do with domesticated cats vs feral or wild cats. Some people call them strays, alley cats, or barn cats.

Feral cats create a colony that most people feel we need to monitor. The preferred method is to catch them, take them to the vet, get their immunization shots, get them fixed by removing their reproductive organs and then either find a home for them or return them to the community.

I think Kittens are very cute but they can get pregnant at four months of age and by 6 months they can give birth. So that is the reason why they want to get them fixed so that the cat colony does not get so large that the city has to go in and euthanize them.

My issue is I have kittens that had no human contact the first 5 weeks of their life and they are somewhat resistant to being domesticated at this point in time. Also if anyone has ever seen the hoarders program on TV then they know that the situation with cats can get out of hand fairly quickly.

 

[PloverWing]

I am much in favor of the trap-neuter-return approach to feral cat populations.

 

[[serious]]

The stray cat moved her kittens into my yard when they were around 5 weeks old. Back before she got pregnant she was begging food from me because she was just not able to catch enough food to keep her healthy. The squirrels, rabbits and birds do not seem to need help but the cats are not fully self sufficient. I am not sure about the possums and raccoons as to how much food they get from people. They do like to eat the food that people put out for the cats and they get pretty big eating that food.

There is an issue with a neighbor where they do not like stray cats and they do not want them eating the cute little bunnies. They think that all cats belong inside. So the cute little bunny should in their opinion not have to worry about the starving cat eating them.

I think the issue has to do with the evolutionary transition from hunter gather to food producer that took place around 6,000 years ago with Adam and Eve. The issue also has to do with domesticated cats vs feral or wild cats. Some people call them strays, alley cats, or barn cats.

Feral cats create a colony that most people feel we need to monitor. The preferred method is to catch them, take them to the vet, get their immunization shots, get them fixed by removing their reproductive organs and then either find a home for them or return them to the community.

I think Kittens are very cute but they can get pregnant at four months of age and by 6 months they can give birth. So that is the reason why they want to get them fixed so that the cat colony does not get so large that the city has to go in and euthanize them.

My issue is I have kittens that had no human contact the first 5 weeks of their life and they are somewhat resistant to being domesticated at this point in time. Also if anyone has ever seen the hoarders program on TV then they know that the situation with cats can get out of hand fairly quickly.

As an aside from the main thrust, the best, friendliest cat I ever had was a kitten of a stray.

Back to the main thrust, yes, cats form breeding populations in the wild. I wouldn't really call them colonies, as cats aren't terribly social with one another, but they are quite capable of surviving.

What's your point in regards to evolution?

 

[joshua 1 9]

As an aside from the main thrust, the best, friendliest cat I ever had was a kitten of a stray.

I am amazed at how good of a mother the cat is. I only have experience with dogs and the dogs we had were not anywhere near as good of a mother compared to this cat. I even wonder if this is why dogs are more codependent then the rather independent cats, because of the better parenting skills of cats. Although this can be rather subjective because I have friend that tell me dogs can be good parents.

I have no one point, other then the question of the evolution from wild to domesticated plants and animals. Cats and dogs seem to make a special bond with people. Cats tend to choose us, we do not choose them. Information about cats is very well documented on the internet. Lots of people have observed them. The term colonies is a term very commonly used. This is used in the discussion of how cats in any given area interact with each other.

The reason I was interested in this cat: as a kitten it was the same color gray as the wild rabbits. Even now I notice that the cat as it gets older is turning the same color brown as the older rabbits get. So predictor and pray tend to be the same color. Only two of it's kittens were gray, one I gave away already. The other three were clearly the color of the father a orange cat we call Gary. One kitten I have no idea where it gets it's color from. Orange is not bright enough because they are very aggressive and the other species need all the warning they can get to stay out of their way.

 

[joshua 1 9]

I am much in favor of the trap-neuter-return approach to feral cat populations.

The mother has already trained them when they see a trap: run and hide. I put a trap out there and she moved them and she would not move them back until the trap was gone. We have a bed for them and my wife and I can catch them when they are sleeping. Right now I am planning on getting at least two of them neutered and keeping them in the wild. I tend to be anti abortion so I want to get them taken care of before they get pregnant. Unless I decide to get the mother fixed and let one of her kittens have the next litter. I see what happens when people do not control the situation and the last thing we need is 50 or 60 cats in our back yard. I am sure the neighbors would complain and the city would euthanize them. They have a colony in the park with 30 or 40 cats but they hide from me because I do not feed them.